The Universal Self

The Universal Self

This morning I pulled the “Why do I trust?” card. I have been thinking this question, and little variations on it, for the last few days. I love this Creative Question. Especially since the reverse was so familiar to me.

Why do I trust? Why can I trust? How do I know I can trust?

As I grow up, my life gets bigger. As my life gets bigger, I find myself from time to time wondering how I will manage. I can find myself creeping toward overwhelmed, or even toward scared, and then I remember to ask, “Why can I trust? Why can I trust my process? Why do I trust the Universe?”

When I trust, I relax. When I relax, I flow. My thoughts and emotions can flow through my mind. My qi and vitals can flow in my body. My life can flow.

When I trust, I can open my heart. When I open my heart, really nice stuff can come in; love, support, care, the healing of relationships.

When I trust, I can slow down. That means I have time to savor my life, relish my relationships. I have time for work, family, friends, hobbies, activities, spiritual life,  exercise, meals, and sleep. And when I trust, I sleep a whole lot better.

When I trust, I can easily remember to practice all this stuff. I can practice on little challenges, I can practice with somewhat difficult situations, I can practice with minorly difficult people.

And then the miracle happens.

When the big challenge shows up, when the really difficult situations arise, when the super challenging people appear, we can handle it.

We can handle it.

We will manage with grace and poise. We will operate from our perfect self, our core. We will feel peaceful and experience our stillness.We will find compassion, we will find solutions. We will accept help and other’s expertise.

How do I know the Universe provides? What makes me feel protected? How can I choose to feel safe?

The Twelve Steps programs teach us to let go, and to turn things over to our higher power. When we choose to trust, we do this automatically, effortlessly. When we choose to trust, we also choose to refrain from worry and fear. When we choose to trust, we find that, while anger may flare, it moves through quickly and without leaving destruction behind.

When I choose to trust, I no longer need to try to control stuff I can’t, like you, and I find that I take joy in controlling the things I can control, like my thoughts and feelings.

When I choose to trust, I choose freedom. When I choose to trust, I allow my divine and infinite self to emerge. I like that.

How have I changed from being small and mistrustful to opening to the vastness of my Universal self?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 12172013

I’m a Lucky Duck

I’m a Lucky Duck

I have a little peeve to share with you. That is, people saying to me, “You’re so lucky!” about something that I’ve worked my butt off for.

So let’s talk about luck.

We know now that we are creating our environment all the time with the thoughts we have and the choices we make. We take that as a given.

What does that do to our notion of luck?

We tend to think of some people as lucky, and others as unlucky. What we don’t see is all the behind the scenes stuff. We don’t see how they each create a space that attracts what seems to be good luck, or what seems to be bad.

In days of yore, I was very good at bad lucking. Bad luck jobs, bad luck debt, bad luck health, bad luck boyfriends. I had bad judgment, and made bad choices. I felt plagued by bad luck, and had neither a sense of personal responsibility, nor did I get that I was encouraging bad stuff to happen to me. It took a beloved teacher ten long years to help me see what I was doing.

I made my own bad luck. It’s not that I wouldn’t see the flashing red warning signs, the red flags, it was simply that when I saw them I was drawn to them rather than try to avoid them. If given a choice between two attractive men, I would choose the one who seemed like he needed help. Oy. If two equivalent jobs were offered, I would take the one with the troubled boss. Oy. If I had the choice between taking care of my health, or staying up all night or abusing chemicals, or starving myself, well, you see what I’m talking about.

Oy.

Now I make space for good luck. I see the red flags as warnings and keep my distance. I have a job I like with people I love. I take care of my health, my money, my relationships.

I have such good luck!

Another element of making space for good luck is commitment. I really wanted to go to Hong Kong for my 40th birthday. Only thing was that it would cost me a third of what I was making annually running the coffee shop. But I made the commitment, and lo, the “good luck” started showing up. I saved up like crazy, talked about it like crazy, and friends and family started helping me realize the trip of a lifetime. I’ve now had three Trips of a Lifetime and expect to have more.

When I commit to living a life full of good luck, full of fortune, full of wonderful surprises and miracles, guess what I get? When I spend time each day noticing my good luck, my fortunate things, my wonderful surprises and miracles, I get grateful.

One of the most wonderful things in my life is my relationship with you. What a difference you make for me, and I appreciate that in you so much.

How have I changed from believing in bad luck to making room for miracles?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 08202013